TUSCALOOSA,
Ala. -- Not many back-to-back conference champions get the chance to
play the "no respect" card during their pursuit of a three-peat.

Alabama,
despite a loaded returning class that included an All-American pitcher,
received that opportunity when not one of the SEC's coaches voted the
Crimson Tide to win the regular season title for the league's preseason
poll.

It
didn't slip by Alabama's coaches and players. It lingered all the way
until the final out of Sunday's 5-3 victory over Florida at Rhoads
Stadium, a win that eliminated anyone else from sharing the Crimson
Tide's third consecutive regular season championship.

"That
gave us momentum and motivation to play better and to prove everybody
wrong a little bit," leftfielder Kayla Braud said. "So what if we're the
underdogs? I'd rather be the underdogs than expected to win. We get to
come out, have fun and play.

"That's exactly what we did the last two days."

The
win gave No. 3 Alabama its fourth SEC championship in program history
and marked its first three-game series victory over the No. 7 Gators
since 2008. Alabama (47-6, 23-5 SEC) finishes its regular season today
at Fordham, but it ends its SEC slate with a one-game lead over
Tennessee (45-9, 22-6) and a two-game lead over Florida (44-10, 21-7), a
team that recently had the Crimson Tide's number until the final two
games of this weekend's series.

"I
think we finally kind of made our mark," Alabama coach Patrick Murphy
said. "This senior class has been awesome ... It starts with them and then
trickles down to everybody else."

It
certainly didn't take long to hit sophomore Jackie Traina, the Crimson
Tide's workhorse pitcher from start to finish this season. She threw
every pitch for Alabama during the three-game series en route to picking
up her 30th and 31st wins of the year.

Her
seven-inning effort Sunday was particularly gritty, as she labored
through 90-degree heat without her best velocity. It didn't matter, as
she was touched up for just three runs -- all of which came from
Florida's back-to-back home runs during the fourth inning -- while she
struck out six and walked three.

"She
knew she had to win two games this weekend against a great Florida
team," Braud said. "To have her on our team is one of the greatest
experiences I've ever had. I'm so happy I got to play with Jackie
Traina. It's a blessing, really."

Traina's
355th and final pitch of the weekend induced Florida's Kasey Fagan to
fly out to left field, sending all of her teammates toward her for a
post-game celebration.

"It
feels good because we didn't have any respect for it," Traina said. "We
won the last two years but we didn't have any votes this year. It just
fuels the fire."

In
Friday's 4-1, series-opening loss to the Gators, Alabama didn't pick up
a hit against Hannah Rogers until the sixth inning. On Sunday, it
chased her out of the circle by the fifth batter in its four-run first
inning.

Braud
and Jennifer Fenton led off the inning with back-to-back singles and
Amanda Locke was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Kaila Hunt. Hunt's
double down the left-field line scored two runs and was promptly
followed by Rogers' exit.

It
wasn't much easier for reliever Lauren Haeger, who surrendered
back-to-back RBI singles to Traina and Cassie Reilly-Boccia before
recording the first out of the inning.

Alabama
added its only other run one inning later, when Locke's sacrifice fly
scored Braud, who led off with a double and finished with a game-high
three hits.

"I
was glad to see (Rogers) go," Murphy said. "We scored four runs and we
did exactly what we wanted to do: Score early and take a little pressure
off Jackie."

Respect, not pressure, was on Traina's mind after Sunday's win.

"We
wanted something that was ours and we didn't want to give it up,"
Traina said. "We're not just going to roll over and let you take it,
especially on our field."

Alabama,
as the No. 1 seed, will face Mississippi State in Thursday's first
round of the SEC Tournament, which Alabama will host at Rhoads
Stadium.